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A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Knight of the Blank Shield

Once, a mighty knight was betrayed by a damsel he had been honor-bound to help, and was forced to slay an attacker while unarmed, using only the materials at hand to do so.

Realizing the potential of this method of fighting, he began improving upon it, and eventually honed his skill to such a degree that many asked him to pass his teachings on to them. They improved and passed those teachings to a new generation of knights, and eventually those who used the mildly dishonorable techniques became known as Knights of the Blank Shield, from the originator of the style's tendency to ride into battle with a shield devoid of heraldry or markings showing who he was.

PrerequisitesSkills: Intimidate 8 ranks, Balance 4 ranks, Disguise 2 ranks. Feats: Power Attack, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Weapon FocusManeuvers: Must know 3 maneuvers, at least one of which must be of the Iron Heart or Devoted Spirit discipline, and at least one of which must be at least 2nd level. Special: Knight's Challenge class featureSpecial: Must have defeated an opponent with a CR equal to or greater than your ECL using nothing but improvised weaponry or unarmed attacks.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A Knight of the Blank Shield gains proficiency with all weapons. He gains no new armor proficiencies.

Maneuvers: At second level and every two levels thereafter, a Knight of the Blank Shield learns a new maneuver from the Iron Heart or Devoted Spirit discipline. You must meet the prerequisites for these maneuvers as normal. You gain an additional maneuver readied at third level and every three levels thereafter.

Stances: A Knight of the Blank Shield learns an additional stance from the Iron Heart or Devoted Spirit discipline at 5th and 10th level. You must meet the prerequisites of these, as normal.

Improvised Weapon Proficiency: From first level onwards, a Knight of the Blank Shield no longer takes the non-proficiency penalty on attack rolls made while using improvised weaponry.

Knight abilities: A Knight of the Blank Shield adds his class level to his Knight level to determine uses of Challenge each day and which Knight's Challenge abilities he has access to.

Weapon Aptitude (Ex): At 1st level, a Knight of the Blank Shield gains the Weapon Aptitude special quality, as the Bloodstorm Blade ability of the same name.

Knight's Blade (Ex): As a knight should never be without weapons, a Knight of the Blank Shield has trained enough to be able to wield any weapon with an almost supernatural level of skill.
At 2nd level, as a swift action, you may give any weapon that you are wielding a +1 enhancement bonus until the end of the encounter. This bonus increases by 1 for every four character levels that you have, capped at one half of your Knight of the Blank Sheild levels. This enhancement bonus only functions for you.

Obscured Mind (Su): Part of the legend of the knight tells of how he was capable of obscuring his mind, becoming practically immune to detection. The Knights of the Blank Shield practice to try and replicate his technique. At 3rd level, you are under the effects of a nondetection spell as long as you are wearing clothing that conceals your identity, such as full plate with a helmet and no heraldry, or a disguise.

Improved Knights Blade (Su): At times, the skill of a Knight of the Blank Shield seems supernatural. At others, it is. From 5th level onwards, when you activate Knight's Blade, you may choose to have the weapon affected also gain weapon abilities with a combined total adjustment equal to one less than the enhancement bonus granted by Knight's blade.

Cloaked Mind (Su): By 7th level, a Knight of the Blank Sheild has almost mastered the art of defending his mind from hostile effects. you are under the effects of a mind blank spell as long as you are wearing clothing that conceals your identity, such as full plate with a helmet and no heraldry, or a disguise. Furthermore, you gain the benefits of Obscured Mind at all times, even when your identity is plainly visible.

True Knight's Blade: At 10th level, you have reached a mastery of the art of combat. The bonus granted by Knight's Blade becomes uncapped, and it increases by 1 for every 3 character levels you have, instead of every 4.

Eternal Arms Mastery (Ex): A Knight of the Blank Shield is of such skill with weapons, he can effortlessly switch his focus and find victory through cunning usage of weapons. You may treat all feats you have which require selecting a specific weapon or type of weapon (such as Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization) as though the weapon you are currently wielding was that weapon.
Furthermore, by simply picking up a magical weapon or other offensively focused magic item (such as a wand of fireball), you understand its use completely, including any command words or special actions that may be required to use it to its full potential, and gain a bonus equal to your class level on Use Magic Device checks made to use that item, including emulating a race, attribute, class, or alignment. You may also make a use Magic Device check to emulate a feat, if one is required for an item's use, with a DC of 35. You may only emulate one feat at a time.

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R&R is "read and review".

So, yeah, got bored, made this. Not sure if it's balanced or not. A few of you will probably get what this is, easily.

Also, yeah, it's intended for a Knight/Crusader or Knight/Warblade . Figured that the knight could use a little love, and not lose abilities for muliclassing. Might need to tone it down a bit, though...

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Text of Improved Knight's Blade does not match table. And there are issues with granting an enhancement bonus based on class level - better to make it something that scales by HD, or just let you enchant yourself as a magic weapon a la the Ancestral RelicBoED feat and have the effect extend to anything you wield.

Weapon Aptitude is primarily a warblade ability; IIRC bloodstorm blades gain it "as a warblade". In any case, warblade is easier to reference.

Seems odd that it doesn't have Use Magic Device as a class skill or prereq; the capstone is also pretty meh, being essentially "your weapon gains a +1-equivalent enhancement, and you can use swords that harm an alignment your enemies don't have". You could just grant a bonus on UMD checks equal to your class level.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Text of Improved Knight's Blade does not match table. And there are issues with granting an enhancement bonus based on class level - better to make it something that scales by HD, or just let you enchant yourself as a magic weapon a la the Ancestral Relic feat and have the effect extend to anything you wield.

No idea about the comment on Improved Knight's Blade...

As for the scaling thing... Maybe start it out low, and scale with IL, or something? Cap it at half class level, of course.

Weapon Aptitude is primarily a warblade ability.

Yeah, but the Bloodstorm specifies that it stacks with the Warblade one...

Guess I could change it.

Seems odd that it doesn't have Use Magic Device as a class skill or prereq; the capstone is also pretty meh, being essentially "your weapon gains a +1-equivalent enhancement, and you can use swords that harm an alignment your enemies don't have". You could just grant a bonus on UMD checks equal to your class level.

Maybe the UMD thing will be changed to "you are able to weild any weapon with a special requirement, such as being only usable by elves, or being only usable by clerics, as though you met that requirement.". Does that read better?

As for the meh part...

It says "specific weapon". Weapons of Legacy grant you feats for each specific one.

Also, isn't the main reason to dip Master of Masks access to all weapons? Because you get proficiency with ALL weapons as well.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Originally Posted by The-Mage-King

Eh. Not the aspect I was trying to play up.

The problem is, in real life a knight who wore a helmet and didn't paint his shield was virtually anonymous. The description acts like this is still true in a world of wizards and clerics who can read minds, scry on you 24/7, speak to gods and grow clones of you from your blood.
EDIT: You don't have Disguise as a class skill.

As for the scaling thing... Maybe start it out low, and scale with IL, or something? Cap it at half class level, of course.

Er, the capping by class level part was the problem. If you're lv20 and have 1 level in this class, then making a weapon +1 instead of drawing your +5 sword hardly even counts as an ability.

Maybe the UMD thing will be changed to "you are able to weild any weapon with a special requirement, such as being only usable by elves, or being only usable by clerics, as though you met that requirement.". Does that read better?

As for the meh part...

It says "specific weapon". Weapons of Legacy grant you feats for each specific one.

The ability as written would let you switch Legacy Weapons but not use one unless you had the feats already. And a UMD bonus would mean that you could also attack with wands; it's kind of weird that a guy with the theme of "can use anything as a weapon" can't use a weapon that a random thief can.

Also, isn't the main reason to dip Master of Masks access to all weapons? Because you get proficiency with ALL weapons as well.

Yes, and the main reason to take 6 levels of horizon walker is to become immune to fatigue. Doesn't make it a good reason, when you can get both at lv1.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Originally Posted by Prime32

The problem is, in real life a knight who wore a helmet and didn't paint his shield was virtually anonymous. The description acts like this is still true in a world of wizards and clerics who can read minds, scry on you 24/7, speak to gods and grow clones of you from your blood.
EDIT: You don't have Disguise as a class skill.

Fair point. Thing is, this is covering the "lolswordhijack" part of the abilities, not the "Nope. You don't know who I am. Even then." part.

Besides, the point is it's the breach of courtesy, not the anonymity, which is slightly dishonorable.

Er, the capping by class level part was the problem. If you're lv20 and have 1 level in this class, then making a weapon +1 instead of drawing your +5 sword hardly even counts as an ability.

But... That allows for a brief dip, and doesn't encourage sticking with the class...

Hm...

The ability as written would let you switch Legacy Weapons but not use one unless you had the feats already. And a UMD bonus would mean that you could also attack with wands; it's kind of weird that a guy with the theme of "can use anything as a weapon" can't use a weapon that a random thief can.

Hm... Point.

...Guess I'll add UMD to class skills, and slap on a +Class level on checks to use offense-oriented magic items. Maybe add a way to replicate having the Least Legacy feat with UMD...

Yes, and the main reason to take 6 levels of horizon walker is to become immune to fatigue. Doesn't make it a good reason, when you can get both at lv1.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

I don't think they should get UMD beyond what they already do. Maybe give them a single free rank in the skill at 10th level so they can actually use it rather than [Admiral Ackbar]ITS A TRAP![/Admiral Ackbar] if they forget to put 2 cross-class skill points in it since it is a trained-only skill... or just explicitly say that they don't need the rank.

Not sure why you gave them Tumble, since they are generally going to be wearing too heavy of armor to use it. Or do knights get some sort of ability that lets them work around that?

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Honestly I'd just move omni-proficiency to lv1, and have Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a class prereq in place of Improved Disarm; that way you're not increasing the power of weapons you can use.

Originally Posted by The-Mage-King

But... That allows for a brief dip, and doesn't encourage sticking with the class...

Hm...

"You have a weapon you could have bought anyway" doesn't amount to much. True, it's hard to disarm you, but that just makes it equivalent to a soulknife. The most useful parts of the ability are that it applies to both weapons when dual-wielding, and makes Dex-based melee fighters better if they need to switch to a ranged weapon.

There is more than enough room here to slap on some abilities related to hiding your identity at higher levels. Since your weapon's power is supposed to be relative to your character level, granting a weapon that scales with your class level means that your class features become weaker whenever you take a level that's not in this class, including after you've completed the PrC.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Originally Posted by Prime32

Since your weapon's power is supposed to be relative to your character level, granting a weapon that scales with your class level means that your class features become weaker whenever you take a level that's not in this class, including after you've completed the PrC.

...and granting a weapon that scales with character level encourages dipping too much...? Most class features DON'T scale with character level.
In that case it should scale with class level until the capstones which should tweak it to something slightly better than the last level, but based on character level. Maybe?

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

...and granting a weapon that scales with character level encourages dipping too much...? Most class features DON'T scale with character level.

Most class features don't need to.

Using lv1 barbarian rage gives you +2 attack/damage at any level. Using a magically generated +1 weapon instead of a bought weapon grants you +1 attack/damage at lv1, and more than -4 attack/damage at lv20. If it scaled by level though, as greater magic weapon does, you would consistently get a bonus.

Equipment scales by level by default, so replacing it with a fixed bonus is effectively negative scaling.

Re: A knight does not die with empty hands! (3.5) (ToB) (PrC) (R&R)

Honestly I'd just move omni-proficiency to lv1, and have Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a class prereq in place of Improved Disarm; that way you're not increasing the power of weapons you can use.

May as well. Makes it a bit better.

"You have a weapon you could have bought anyway" doesn't amount to much. True, it's hard to disarm you, but that just makes it equivalent to a soulknife. The most useful parts of the ability are that it applies to both weapons when dual-wielding, and makes Dex-based melee fighters better if they need to switch to a ranged weapon.

"A weapon you could have bought anyway" than can change abilities each encounter. What's that? A guy who's weak to a certain weapon configuration? WHY SURE, I HAVE THAT!

There is more than enough room here to slap on some abilities related to hiding your identity at higher levels. Since your weapon's power is supposed to be relative to your character level, granting a weapon that scales with your class level means that your class features become weaker whenever you take a level that's not in this class, including after you've completed the PrC.

Guess I could do that...

Originally Posted by DracoDei

...and granting a weapon that scales with character level encourages dipping too much...? Most class features DON'T scale with character level.
In that case it should scale with class level until the capstones which should tweak it to something slightly better than the last level, but based on character level. Maybe?

I was thinking limiting it to half class level, but removing that limit at the last level, honestly.